No abstract

We suggest that the compound heterozygous mutations in SBF1 are the underlying causes of a novel CMT4B subtype, designated as CMT4B3. We believe that this study will lead to mechanistic studies to discover the function of SBF1 and to the development of molecular diagnostics for CMT disease.

Our knowledge of the immunomodulatory role of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in both the innate and adaptive immune systems has dramatically expanded, providing great promise for treating various autoimmune diseases. However, the contribution of MSCs to Th17-dominant immune disease, such as psoriasis and its underlying mechanism remains elusive. In this study, we demonstrated that human palatine tonsil-derived MSCs (T-MSCs) constitutively express both the membrane-bound and soluble forms of programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1), which enables T-MSCs to be distinguished from MSCs originating from other organs (i.e. bone marrow or adipose tissue). We also found that T-MSC-derived PD-L1 effectively represses Th17 differentiation via both cell-to-cell contact and a paracrine effect. Further, T-MSCs increase programmed death-1 (PD-1) expression on T-cells by secreting IFN-β, which may enhance engagement with PD-L1. Finally, transplantation of T-MSCs into imiquimod-induced psoriatic skin inflammation in mice significantly abrogated disease symptoms, mainly by blunting the Th17 response in a PD-L1-dependent manner. This study suggests that T-MSCs might be a promising cell source to treat autoimmune diseases such as psoriasis, via its unique immunoregulatory features. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease 2F (CMT2F) and distal hereditary motor neuropathy 2B (dHMN2B) are caused by autosomal dominantly inherited mutations of the heat shock 27 kDa protein 1 (HSPB1) gene and there are no specific therapies available yet. Here, we assessed the potential therapeutic effect of HDAC6 inhibitors on peripheral neuropathy with HSPB1 mutation using in vitro model of motor neurons derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) of CMT2F and dHMN2B patients. The absolute velocity of mitochondrial movements and the percentage of moving mitochondria in axons were lower both in CMT2F-motor neurons and in dHMN2B-motor neurons than those in controls, and the severity of the defective mitochondrial movement was different between the two disease models. CMT2F-motor neurons and dHMN2B-motor neurons also showed reduced α-tubulin acetylation compared with controls. The newly developed HDAC6 inhibitors, CHEMICAL X4 and CHEMICAL X9, increased acetylation of α-tubulin and reversed axonal movement defects of mitochondria in CMT2F-motor neurons and dHMN2B-motor neurons. Our results suggest that the neurons derived from patient-specific iPSCs can be used in drug screening including HDAC6 inhibitors targeting peripheral neuropathy.